Equipment racks are used extensively for mounting Information Technology (“IT”) equipment. Equipment racks typically include a frame and/or an enclosure with two or four vertical posts provided to which IT equipment is mounted. Several formal standards exist which dictate the specifications of particular equipment racks. For example, equipment rack standards commonly specify an incremental equipment height value or Rack Unit (“RU”), a vertical mounting hole spacing, a rack equipment opening width, and a width value for the front panel of the IT equipment that will be mounted in the rack.
One of the most prevalent standards for equipment racks is Electronic Industries Alliance EIA-310 (“EIA standard,” or “EIA-310”), which specifies a rack that has a RU of 1.75″ (44.45 mm) and can accommodate IT equipment with a 19″ (482.6 mm) front panel width. Each piece of IT equipment mounted in EIA-compliant racks typically includes two or more live AC to DC power converters to provide redundancy in the event of a component failure. The redundant power converters generate a significant amount of heat and have a low overall operating efficiency. Furthermore, the 19″ front panel width specification of the EIA standard limits the possible placement and orientation of individual electronic components within IT equipment. As a result, complicated airflow management schemes are required to maintain safe operating temperatures for all rack-mounted IT equipment.
The Open Compute Project (“OCP”) is an initiative to share data center product designs. The OCP provides the Open Rack Standard which includes specifications for an equipment rack, known as the Open Rack. The Open Rack under the OCP standard can have similar depth and outer width specifications as an EIA-compliant rack; however, the OCP-compliant rack provides a 538 mm (approximately 21-inch) opening for mounting wider IT equipment. The OCP standard also specifies a Rack Unit, referred to as an “OpenU,” of approximately 1.9″ (48 mm). An OCP-compliant rack can also include an integrated power distribution bus system and power shelves for housing standardized power converters.
The difference in specifications between the EIA-compliant equipment rack and the OCP-compliant equipment rack make them incompatible, i.e., an OCP-compliant equipment rack cannot be used to mount IT equipment designed to be mounted in a 19″ EIA-compliant rack and vice-versa.